


Serve Cold

by Happybbunny



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, Cannibalism, Dark Jack Frost, Gen, Gore, Horror, i think its gore idk what qualifies as gore, literally jack just eats a guy and angsts over it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 13:38:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2813933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Happybbunny/pseuds/Happybbunny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spirits of winter were generally avoided for a reason. Avalanches, snowstorms, frostbite, and all other sorts of catastrophes were nasty punishments they could inflict upon those poor souls who have crossed them. But along with that, rumors of a horrific curse were whispered among spirits and mortals alike. Beings of winter were burdened by an eternal, excruciating hunger that could only be lessened by one thing. </p><p>And unfortunately, Jack was no exception.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Serve Cold

After hours of relentless and careful searching, Jack found himself over a large woodland area. Dark, looming pines resembled church spires, reaching towards the sky. The setting snow cast an orange glow upon the snow dusting the trees and coating the forest floor. Jack’s eyes fell upon what appeared to be an amateur hiker, judging by his gear, who was walking along a trail surrounded by acres of dense forest. 

And best of all, the hiker was completely alone. There was not another living soul for miles. 

Spirits of winter were generally avoided for a reason. Avalanches, snowstorms, frostbite, and all other sorts of catastrophes were nasty punishments they could inflict upon those poor souls who have crossed them. But along with that, rumors of a horrific curse were whispered among spirits and mortals alike. Beings of winter were burdened by an eternal, excruciating hunger that could only be lessened by one thing. 

And unfortunately, Jack was no exception. 

He landed softly near the man, about two yards back. It was pointless for Jack to hide or sneak about; he couldn't be seen anyway. No, the hiker saw nothing but the surrounding forest and the winding path ahead of him, now half covered by freshly fallen snow. Jack's light steps left no prints, as he stalked the man whose heavy boots left deep imprints behind him as he trekked loudly though the snow. The hiker shivered, as the biting cold seemed to grow colder.

Jack was starving. The agonizing ache in his abdomen had finally become too unbearable to ignore. It was a gnawing hunger that would have been crippling for a mortal. He could possibly handle going another week or two without a meal, but he was a guardian now. He was regularly around children and friends. He had appearances to keep up. And if he lost control of his appetite and blacked out....

...He needed to eat before that happened. Before the other guardians grew suspicious of his fatigue and strange behavior. 

Jack began to lead the man off the trail as a precaution. It would be messy if another human came along and interrupted the spirit's long awaited meal. Jack couldn’t afford to do this sort of thing too often. The use of gusts of wind, slick patches of ice, and other manipulations of Jack's element lured the man off his path. The hale and hearty hiker unwittingly let the shepherd lead him to his slaughter. 

The two soon reached a clearing isolated from the trail by a wall of thick trees. Showing no hesitation, the harbinger of winter froze his prey's boots to the ground.  
Frightened and bewildered by this trap that appeared out of nowhere, the man took out his flashlight and attempted use it to chip off the ice and free his legs. Jack sort of respected his prey’s perseverance in his futile escape attempt, and he set his staff down.

Jack then proceeded to send a large icicle through the man’s heart with a wave of his hand.

It was a swift, merciful death, he hoped. Surprise barely had time to flicker across the man's features before blood gurgled and sputtered from his mouth and he fell to the ground. Jack unfroze the corpse's feet so that the body could lay fairly flat. 

Without believers, Jack hadn't been capable of touching people for 300 years. His attempts at contact merely resulted in people walking through him. 

Except when the people he touched were already dead. 

With something to feast on finally laid out before him, Jack's previously repressed hunger overcame him and he could wait no longer. Ice lengthened the tips of his fingers and teeth, in mimicry of claws and fangs, and he greedily dug into the body. The hiker's clothing and other belongings were torn to shreds and cast aside out of his way. Jack tore open the torso, leaving the underlying innards fully visible and exposed. Organs pulsed and throbbed for a moment before finally ceasing for good. Blood gushed from severed arteries and spilled, staining the virgin snow around them. 

His senses awakened as he bit into the man. The taste of the succulent meat sent a music through his veins. The song was like the beat of drums. It felt like a celebration for a victorious hunt. 

Jack ripped out coiled intestines and stuffed them into his mouth, distantly hating himself for every second of it. The dissipating warmth of entrails was the only sort of heat that an eternally cold being cared for. The succulent meat gave the illusion of warmth, and almost seemed to lessen the chill in Jack’s icy bones. Next the liver was devoured, then the pancreas, the kidneys, the stomach, the lungs, and so on, until he finally consumed the pierced heart. The chest cavity was left as an empty bloody cradle, robbed of life. By now, the winter chill had settled in and taken from the corpse any traces of warmth. 

With his stomach no longer empty, Jack snapped out of his frenzied state and began eating what remained with more care. Jack pulled off a wedding ring with a faint twinge of guilt that was mostly drowned out by hunger. Mostly. Almost. He hoped the man didn’t have children waiting for him. He really hoped they weren't believers. 

He carefully plucked the nails off the body's hands and feet. They tended to get stuck in the teeth like popcorn kernels. Once that was done, he tore off each digit and quickly ate them, bones and all, like one would eat fries. The blood could almost resemble ketchup, if one squinted and ignored the taste and texture. 

Who was he kidding, obviously they weren't fries. They were a person that he brutally killed and oh god if the other guardians saw this if Jamie--

Jack shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of that train of thought, and continued eating. It wouldn't help to dwell on that sort of thing. It wasn't that bad really. There was what, seven billion people and counting? And people died every day. One little death was just a drop in the bucket really.  
Jack had to keep telling himself that. 

Jack used to grieve, after every meal. He even prayed for them, and visited the empty graves of a few. But after a while, he realized that he wasn't mourning them. He had never known the people he hunted and devoured. He was despairing for himself, for having to do horrible things for the smallest ounce of comfort, and he didn't deserve that privilege. So he tried not to think too much about it. 

His actions were wrong. So wrong.  
But he had to eat, or the hunger would drive him to acting more monstrous. He’d be uncontrollable. Eventually, the guardians would notice change. They'd worry. And they'd pry and prod and pester, until they learned the horrible truth. Jack wouldn't let that happen. 

Jack continued gorging on chunks of tender meat, not willing to waste a single morsel. The more he ate now, the longer he could go without feasting again. As much as he loathed to, he reached for the eyes and scooped them out from their sockets, squishing them slightly but otherwise leaving them intact. He worked fast in order to avoid looking at the face. Quickly swallowing each of them, he then went on to rip off the ears and ate those too. The specks of blood he left nearly blended in with the man's freckles, in the dim light filtered by the trees. 

The nose was next. Jack could have laughed at the irony of him biting off a nose, if not for the grim reality of the situation. 

After that, Jack opened the mouth to take out the pink muscle stuck inside, and to rip the teeth from their bloodied gums. The jaw was dislocated in his rough endeavor, but that didn't matter. It would soon be torn off in due time as well. 

Once the face was mostly gone, it became easier for Jack. No reminders of the body's stolen humanity were left. 

He continued stripping off flayed flesh and muscle, until finally the body before him was little more than bones. However not even those were left untouched. Jack ripped off the right arm that was attached merely by bits of sinew and tendon, and broke the bones apart. The bones too large to be eaten as they were had to be snapped cleanly into smaller pieces. The jagged edges didn’t bother him, and Jack then sucked the bone marrow out and ate each piece. After some time, no part of the arm remained. Jack then continued on to the next arm and then the legs. Once those were eaten, he took the spine and broke off each vertebrae before ingesting those as well. The skull was shattered, and swallowed in pieces. And then went each individual rib, and the rest of the skeleton. 

Soon every scrap had been consumed. It had taken quite some time for Jack to finish his meal, but now his thirst was quenched and hunger abated. He would not be so famished again for a while. 

Overhead, snow clouds parted to reveal the crescent moon, just barely coming into view, and it hung heavy in the sky like a scythe. No part of the hiker remained except for his gear and the blood still staining the snow and the metallic scent flooding the air.

The ground reminded Jack of strawberry snow cones that the kids were so fond of on hot summer days. Licking his fingers that were sticky with blood, Jack tried to pretend the red liquid was nothing more than the strawberry flavored syrup that was drizzled over crushed ice. It didn't work. 

With a swipe of his shepherd’s crook, he buried the dead man's gear and spilled blood under several feet of snow. No visible traces of the boy’s savagery were left, and none would be found until spring. Jack let himself feel a moment of gratitude for the man's sacrifice, however unwilling it was. 

As the wind carried Jack away, his hunger subsided for now, he wondered if Jamie would be up for skipping homework in favor of a few pranks and a snowball fight.

**Author's Note:**

> I did no research for this, nor did I pay attention much in biology. If I made a mistake with the dead dude's anatomy or used an word wrong, feel free to let me know.  
> Or feel free to tell me any constructive criticism. I’m more of a reader than a writer. I just wrote this because I felt like reading it…. I wish someone better than me wrote it.  
> Is it gorey enough? Too gorey? Was it too OOC, besides the whole cannibal aspect? Did it not focus on jack’s thoughts enough? Let me know. Seriously I don’t know what I’m doing. I can't describe stuff to save my life.


End file.
